TV in Limbo

I was online, reading some stuff on movies and TV and it dawned on me.  Almost every network has about 8 new pilots or new show coming out.  To name one there is Terra Nova which was just pushed from a May premiere to a new Fall date, on FOX.  Also there is a slew of new comedies that just came out and, no offense but, I don't expect many of them to last, in the past networks go through comedies like their (yes I did mean to say their) one dollar bills (now you get why I said "their").  Looking at many of my favorite shows aren't even on major network (although owned by them), like FX and USA Network.  There is also, like in movies, a lack of original content, in the near future I heard of a Bones spin off, and if I see another talent competition(which I will) I'm going to have to start a new blog containing all my hatred, and profanities, of them.  Now correct me if I'm wrong but, Parenthood is completely original and is tied for my top three shows on TV right now, and for the record the other two are White Collar and Chuck.  Also if the show has the genre "reality" its on like its eleventh season, even though they've already run their course and is on like its fourth victory lap.  I guess my point is, are we going to see a shift in TV momentum, or is going to be more of the same?
I'm Looking Forward To Your Comments

Boredom

Well today, actually all this week, has been pretty crappy, so I'm just going to leave you with a link to one of the chillest songs ever.  http://snd.sc/aGwlvD
Good day sirs (or madams)

The Bandwagon

With the arrival of a new Pirates of the Caribbean trailer, and the movie just around the corner I thought this would be as good a time as any to post this.
I would never call pirates "mainstream."  The closest it came was the ride at Disney World.  Despite that, when I was about 7 or 8 my best friend and I were obsessed with pirates. His room was filled with pirates figures, and his computer was overloaded with pirate games, collectively we must of had at least 30 books on them also.  Now as time went on and we grew older, pirates did not row with us, they stayed the same as when we were 8.
Then out of nowhere The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl came out.  At this time we were only ten and we had already started to lose interest in pirates so neither of us saw the first one in theaters.  Then the second one came and he went to see it in theaters, and he thought it was really good, but I flt that he was only jumping on the bandwagon.  Later the third one came out and at this point the franchise had gotten so big that even I had to jump on the bandwagon.
After seeing it I fell in love with it.  There was a special on USA Network where I saw the first one, and this is where I kinda got off of the bandwagon.  I thought that the third pirates movie was better than the first.
Later that year my dad bought me the second movie for Christmas, and my mom got me third one.  To shorten things I'm just going to say that I thought the second was the best one.
Now to finish this post up I'm gong to say: don't hate on the bandwagon, sure it brings a lot of unpopular things to the mainstream, but don't let it dictate what you do and do not see.
Do You Agree?

Chuck verses the A-team

I love "Chuck"... Phew, now that's out of the way, tonight's episode was pretty solid in "Chuck" standards(which are pretty high to me).  It was an episode that was made after the Volkoff arc (which was supposed to be the final episode of the season).  The episode was, how should I say this, er... distracting.  The part I have not been able to shake off is the platen product placement, they gave Chuck the Sienna to boast, and  didn't even have him do anything "Chuck like" with it (the force door was fine, but only fine).  When the are caught by the GRETAs in, I'm gonna call it "Dark Castle"(patent pending), the kung fu part could have had more emotion, like have Sarah fight them first, get knocked down and have Chuck come rescue her.  I like the subplots, Ellie and awesome was funny, but I thought they could have done more with the Jeffster side of it, imagine all next season Jeffster being paranoid over the CIA stealing laptops (the idea reminds me of a Chuck verses the isle of terror episode from Halloween 2010, in terms of them freaking out).  Other stuff; bomb defusion scene was cool, I liked the whole Hurt Locker meets McGyver thing, apple juice was kinda, eh, but hey, it worked.  Oh yeah, a line I felt was misplaced, When Chuck says that the two GRETAs took out five guys 1) they easily took out more than that when they first saw the GRETAs in this episode, 2) I'm pretty sure (not positive) that Sarah has taken out more on her own.  Also when Capt. Victoria Dunwoody shot the bomber (I'm blanking on his name) the flash was unnecessary.  Music in the episode was good, like usual.  All of these are small so its all good.
What did you think?

Preaching to the choir

This is just a short little annoying thing, but there is, in my mind, a problem in TV advertising.  I love the show "Chuck" it is a great show, but its getting no love from NBC.  It pulls in consistent numbers that are good enough not to cancel, but bad enough to threaten it's cancellation, but they do nothing about it.  It does its job with no advertising while crappy shows like The Event get advertised so much I actually watch an hour of its two hour return Monday.  Also, and this is where the title comes into play, shows that pull constant good ratings like The Office get advertising and my question is "Why?"  Everyone knows its there and it pulls the rating, its wasted money.  Show some love to all your shows.
Do You Agree?

something's been bothering me lately...

Movie companies are playing it a little too safe lately.  They are working with mainly sequels, prequels, and spin-offs.  These can be very helpful in getting money, but recently I haven't seen them working to well.

Last weekend, there was all four Indiana Jones films shown on USA Network.  Now I'm going to start off by saying that, against popular opinion, I liked the fourth one, but that doesn't mean it was a good film. I liked the film for how over the top with "action"which caused the writing to flail around like it had just washed up on shore.  Having said that, I would like to point out that the way I picture them coming up with the idea by writing an action packed movie and then asking themselves, "How can we squeeze every cent out of this movie?"  After that they pitched the movie to execs who gave the green light, with the concession that they put Indy's name on it.

Another thing that annoys me about it, is that they forced the Indiana into the movie.  There was one spot that I felt this was specifically apparent.  The scene where Indy and Mary start sinking in quicksand and Mud goes to get a snake to pull them out.  Now, without having seen the first three films you probably had no idea what is happening in this scene because all you see is Indy repulsed by a snake and they never bring back his snake fear, its like they rounded that base and never looked back. It seems like they wanted to fit an Indy moment into an inherently un-Indy film.  The whole first part of the movie with all that's happening in America was necessary to the film itself but was, again, un-Indy of the movie.

Now that I've said that we can get into the actual post about sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of famous movies.  For that type of movie to be successful there has to be two things 1) a team of film makers that understands the premise and subtleties of the previous movie(s) to make the new one feel like there wasn't a 19 year gap between the two, and 2) a movie franchise that is still relevant to the audience of today.  In my mind there are only two exceptions to that, and those are if the movie was bad when it first came out
(e.g. Batman), or if it was never really famous when it came out (e.g. The Green Hornet).*  I also wonder if in some of the worse sequels, prequels, and spin-offs are that way because the franchise is being forced into a movie that it isn't compatible with it.
*Sorry to anyone who liked those movies, also I wasn't a big fan of the new Green Hornet, but it was the first one that came to mind.

Now sequels, prequels, and spin-offs are proven to drum up sales, but if you do them wrong you can lose that franchise forever, and who wants that.

What Do You Think?

New Kid on the Block

I'm not going to lie, this is my first blog and I just wanted to say that I will update it when I can, but for the moment I'm just trying it on to see if I could handle it.  I hope to mostly comment on movies, music and awesome stuff I find on the web, but I will most likely deviate from that plan.  Feel free to comment... in a respectful manner.  Ummmm, I think that's it for now, I'll come back tomorrow when I don't feel like I could somehow fall asleep standing up.